“We could share it,” he said with a smile. “I’m Jake, by the way.”

“Hi, I’m Liv.”

They were the only two people in the screening, and they sat next to each other in the back row. Liv tried to eat her popcorn quietly. She liked how Jake concentrated on the film, without chatting all the way through it, like her last date had done.

Afterward they went to a pub for a glass of wine and chatted about the film. Liv didn’t usually kiss anyone on a first date, but when Jake told her that his family business typeset and printed books, her heart melted a little.

“Paperpress binds books, too,” he said. “I fold paper into sections called signatures and sew them together using waxed linen thread to create a text block, then adhere end papers to the spine edge and shape it with a hammer. The cover is glued to the end papers, forming the hollow you see between the cover and pages.”

Liv felt like he was reading her a bedtime story. They kissed in the doorway of the pub.

He was eight years older than her, like a strong, solid oak tree, while she still felt like a sapling. While her friends were out dancing in nightclubs and doing the walk of shame home in the early morning, she curled up on the sofa, reading books or watching movies with Jake. She didn’t tell him about her dream of being a writer, feeling too foolish to share it.

In the award room, Liv tore herself away from Essie’s photos. When she returned to the writing room, the manuscript felt like a massive undertaking. She wasn’t sure where to start and she tried to tap into Georgia’s spirit once more. However, the story had left her feeling flat and uninspired. When Liv leafed through her notes, her lungs felt heavy and fear tightened her throat. She couldn’t possibly fit all this work around Platinum and the Cardinals, and she wondered if the deadline to complete the book was movable. Why did it have to be within six months?

Feeling very alone, Liv had an urge to reach out to someone who loved Georgia as much as she did. Neither Anthony nor Jake fitted the bill, so she found herself googling Essie’s agent, Marlon.

She found that Marlon had worked as a car mechanic for many years before returning to university as a mature student. After gaining his English degree he worked for a large London literary agency before setting up The Marlon Austin Literary Agency. His image showed a plump, bald man with an auburn goatee and mischievous smile. He dressed with dapper rebellion in a tweed waistcoat teamed with a leather biker jacket. Other than Essie, his client list consisted of only nine little-known authors, and Liv wondered how this quirky-looking fellow had attracted Essie to his agency.